I Need a Logo Designed for Free Please, thanks Buddy.
There is, in every industry, the unavoidable anally sore fact that what you do to earn a living, will be cheapened by anyone given half the chance. There will be the “I only have £75, can you do a great logo for that?” and the many variations on that theme.
Work swaps, freebies, favours, friends and family, guilt trips, you name it, some potential clients will try it on. It’s how we are wired when we don’t fully understand someone elses area of expertise.
We allow our naivety to be an excuse in these situations.
Don’t you just push a button and press print?
But hey you, Design Person!
But that doesn’t mean that ‘us’, or yes ‘you’, the designer are guilt free. Far from it. We can shove our knecks so far down the collective sand pits that we fail to see that we are infact failing the very people we are cursing for asking for that free logo. We curse them till the purple cows come home for taking the proverbial piss.
How dare they ask for a job skill swapsies session. Do they have no bumbling idea of how much time my bit would take over theirs? Why don’t they know? Why?
So ‘they’, really have no idea of what you charge, how good you are pound for pound, dollar for dollar.They just see you, one amongst many.
The answer
Simply put. We clearly did not do a good enough job of marketing and branding our own worth on our website or through appropriate social media channels. We have not associated ourselves with quality and professional work with the ‘cost and value factor’.
We have not aligned our skill set with the financial aspect. We havn’t associated any value to what we do in the market place. Ok, sure. You may have a handy memorised price list, but that’s not very helpful.
Value
Is it not down to you, me, them, all the collective Designers on this fragile planet to make sure that we foresee and prepare for any and all likely piss taking requests by providing the most basic of information?
You need to start showing things called numbers alongside your glorious portfolio.
It’s all very well having an award winning portfolio, if you don’t give any idea whatsoever about how that award winning portfolio equates to some loose change.
No wonder people try it on. No prices or ball park quote figures, what the hell are people to expect? Well, it seems no prices means you do it for free. Not a wild leap to make.
Give them, the non designer folks some idea of the value you place on your own work and don’t hide it out of sight. Don’t be arrogant, but be confident.
If the amount of these naive requests drop, then you know that you are starting to market yourself correctly. You are not hiding the very details that would make said previous trickster think twice about trying it on.
This is the first step to increasing your overall perceived value. Once this gets a grip, then you keep that momentum going. By doing this you are also doing all other designers a favour, by helping raise the overall perceived awareness of value rather than bitching about another free logo request.
Yes, I am Preaching
I have not always done this myself. I got so fed up with the amount of ridiculous requests, that I thought it was actually my responisbily to put right.
- First step was the online quote form.
- Second step was outlining some basic price structures.
- Third step was then outlining details like timings/schedules and budget expectations.
Since this has evolved, the number of ’silly’ requests and dropped dramatically. Saving me time and numerous pulsating stress headaches.
Plus the bonus that I am now associating my work, via my portfolio with a perceived value. And the added benefit of helping create a universally higher perceived value to all other logo designers.
Article Posted On: April 14, 2009 at 7.04 pm
Written By
In Categories: Branding, Logo design
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28 Comments
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Good article Graham!
I’ll never forget a design conference that i attended a few years back. A well know design studio was giving a talk on their work and portfolio. The lady sitting next to me was a new business start up, she kept repeating to me in a snooty tone, “I’m going to get that company to design a brand for me” When she asked how much it cost for a particular branding project they had shown, I could hear her chin thud on the highly polished wooden floor. £60,000 she thought was a bit high. We, probably for most people. But you do get what you pay for. Perhaps if we started to knock out a few £75 logos it would make people realise what you’d actually get for that.
Nice article. This is something that I’ve found myself dealing with very often lately; due both to a terrible misconception on the part of potential clients regarding the worth of the work, and also probably due to my lack of cost association. That last part is something most freelancers don’t think of right away, which is shocking because it’s such a relatively simple and obvious concept.
Nice one!
Great article. For someone like me, who is just starting out as a freelancer. Trying to sort out what I charge has actually been more of a challenge than anything I have ever done design wise. Again, great read. thanks.
Very good article.
Their will always be tire kickers and seekers of bottom of the line work. No matter how well you try and advertise yourself someone will come up with the gall to question your work. It’s why in any line of work, learning the word ‘No’, is very, very, let me underscore, VERY, important. Get used to saying it or be doomed to run forever.
Great preach, I’ll go back to my choir seat now. ;-)
Great article.
This is a long-standing issue in all areas of design. I was just having a discussion today with a fellow Interior Designer about this same topic.
Yes, we need to properly value our work, knowledge, skills and experience as we provide proposals and fees to clients. The more of us that do this, the better informed the general public will be.
Providing fees/costs for past successful projects could be helpful in basic preliminary estimates, but in my experience, each relationship with each client is different. The factors affecting the cost of a similar final product (especially when it comes to your time) can vary dependent on the client and the circumstances of the project. (maybe more so in Interior Design / Architecture than in Graphic Logo design). Clients should be made aware of this as well if previous fees/costs are used as examples.
By underselling and underestimating the value of good design work to clients, we not only lower our own value but that of the industry.
Anyone that accept $75 to design a logo devalues our profession. It is insulting and unprofessional to even be offered that but as long as there are takers this trend will continue. Just say no. Serves them right to get an awful design.
Great article! I myself run into this all the time, I have fair prices, but I’m pretty sure that they are not what I should be charging, only because…well, it’s that caught between a brick and a hard place spot, as I am the breadwinner in my household for now and I need to get work, need to put food on the table. The economy is bad and you also have to take that into account and what people can afford coupled with what you are worth. But, I do not work for free, and if I feel a project before it begins is really going to take more time, energy etc than my base rate I make that very clear to the client and do a custom quote. Designers should never work for free. Occasional bartering is one thing, working for free is quite another.
Great article Graham! :D
I love the rant. Its very true. I understand why people do not want to show any pricing on their websites. It can scare away potential clients. But by not showing any prices, you leave it into the hands of the potential client to dictate your pricing model. They’re budget can be very small, and they’ll contact you, find out you cost too much, and waste both their own and your time.
To prevent this, I’ve created packages (three page site with light design) and priced the package. This way I can show some pricing on different ranges of projects and it lets potential clients know what kind of price range they will be dealing with.
ain’t that the truth, top post
Why is it that artists and designers are expected to work for free? My rant on this topic: Why do Visual Artists Work for Free?
or, why visual artists are poor and plumbers are no: http://www.visualartcopyright.com/articles.html
I’ve been getting quite a few of these requests lately and updating my portfolio to include costs of the examples is a great idea. I’ve also thought about setting up some packages like Amy. I agree that it’s a problem and one that we need to do something about.
As usual a fabulous blog.
I read something in your post that made me realise something quite vital re: pricing, value and perceptions.
Literally I’m updating something in the text on my website homepage right now to fix an issue you’ve just brought to mind for me :)
Thanks
very nice topic, and so true… have been doing favors from long,
One simple question I ask these guys looking for favor is that will you ask a labour to do work for free, a doctor to check you free, an engineer to build for free, they say NO. My reply, cause that is there specialization and there Bread & Butter. So for designers, designing is there specialization and there Bread & Butter, you shouldn’t ask them for free as well….
I can’t tell you how many times I have had this happen. Great article!
Thanks Graham. I know the feeling of people asking for free work and I too have taken the steps to combat this. Excellent post, well said.
Amen!!
Read this post after just emailing a new ‘client’ who asked me to pitch(spec) a few concepts quickly together. Similar theme here I thought, so this is part of my response.
….firstly I wanted to say that I would not like to ‘quickly throw something together’ therefore not honouring the quality of my design and the processes needed to carry out good concept and design work.
Secondly to point out that I support the design community in the policy of “no pitching / spec” (it lowers the standard of design and supports the idea of bad business practices and risk of free work or no pay….
I do however have more trouble saying no to friends who ask for that ‘quick favour’ – and if they are real friends I sometimes don’t mind, all depending on the situation… of course.
I wonder if including obvious pricing will educate the masses, or simply drive those who are price-shopping elsewhere. There will always be folks with $75 in their pockets who need a logo. At least they won’t go barking up the wrong tree.
Another question: Not everyone pays the same price for a logo. Meaning there may be more that goes into one logo than another. So if you put the price for logo A and logo B on your portfolio, couldn’t it raise a stink from client A if client A paid more for their logo than client B? Maybe instead of including pricing for specific pieces, posting a range? I don’t know. I’m just thinking out loud here.
Mike: All great points. When I talk about pricing, I don’t literally mean individual price tags. As you mention, this would probably create more problems than solve.
I just mean to have a ball park range, as I do on my quote form. Having a minimum figure on the quote form is useful to deter the $75 crowd.
Also why I have price bands. It’s then up to the client how much they want to invest and ultimately get out of the project.
We now have a page on our site listing our hourly rate. It has reduced the emails regarding x-company quoted me $75 dollars your quoting me $1750.
Nice post! I too was getting a lot of the $75 logo requests. I then added a quote form to my website and all the low requests have stopped, completely. It really boils down to marketing yourself to the right clientele. Once you have figured out who you want as a client, it really isn’t that difficult. Again, thanks for the great post!
Very good article, definitely the answer is no, if you say yes people will keep thinking that this is just pushing a buttom and get results.
YOU SPEAK FROM MY (GERMAN) HEART!!! !!! !!!
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